Tectonic geomorphology of the New Madrid seismic zone based on imaging of digital topographic data
- Miami Univ., Oxford, OH (United States). Dept. of Geology
Topographic analysis using digital elevation data of the New Madrid region focuses on topographic features that occur at several spatial scales and can be used to delineate distinct anomalies. In this region, topographic anomalies occur as domal or elongate uplifts and bowl-shaped depressions approximately 1--10 km in size, topographic lineaments, and differences in topographic blocking across 50 km long boundaries. In order to fully explain these topographic anomalies, tectonic processes may be required. Imaging is based on digital topographic data from USGS 30 arc-second, 3 arc-second, and 30 m resolutions. Imaging of these data uses standard imaging processing techniques to examine topography within the contexts of geomorphological hypothesis testing. A good example is the use of thresholding to highlight areas of unusually high elevation given the hypothesis of fluvial landscape architecture. Thresholding delineates topographic features such as the Tiptonville dome which is strongly believed to be tectonic in origin. To determine the pattern of topographic blocking, defined as a pattern that topography assumes when constrained by active forces other than erosion alone, low frequency passing spatial convolutions are used as filters and the resulting data are sliced into blocks according to pseudoelevations that produce a stable block pattern. The resultant blocks are analyzed according to its structural pattern of block size and block orientation. This analysis suggests that a topographic boundary cuts across the Mississippi embayment from near the Newport pluton on the west, to the area south of Memphis on east.
- OSTI ID:
- 7281410
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303210-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:3; Conference: 27. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) North-Central Section meeting, Rolla, MO (United States), 29-30 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
New Madrid seismotectonic study. Summary of activities from 1977 through 1981
Recent vertical movement of the land surface in the Lake County Uplift and Reelfoot Lake Basin areas, Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky